


add more lipstick and attack

by forpuckssake



Series: ice queen [4]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF, Women's Hockey RPF
Genre: 'a hockey team walks into an ulta store' sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, Dumb Hockey Boys, F/M, Gen, Makeup, carter hart would look bomb with winged liner, dont come for me because im right, if this team doesnt have a group chat called gritty gang what even is the point, patty and tk and carter would fight for adoption rights of elle and no one can tell me otherwise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 12:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18969403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forpuckssake/pseuds/forpuckssake
Summary: The ladies at Ulta nearly had a heart attack when over twenty men strolled in after their shortened naps on gameday.“We’re not asking for, like, great makeup,” Travis explained to the harried makeup artists. “Just simple stuff. We’re trying to prove a point.”“Don’t listen to him,” Carter said, pushing his way to the front of the crowd to stand beside the captain. “I want the full glam, please.”---Men could rarely let women have something they enjoyed without tearing them down for it.Their goalie likes to wear makeup, and the Flyers think the rest of the world needs to get over it.





	add more lipstick and attack

**Author's Note:**

> we back y'all
> 
> this wasn't meant to be the next part of this series because i literally just wrote this tonight but the idea struck me and hung on for dear life and wouldn't let go so i wrote it and now here we are
> 
> this is a direct follow-up to the first work in this series (it takes grit, it takes grace) so it helps to have read that first
> 
> title comes from this quote that i love because honestly i feel like elle is That Bitch:  
> “If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack.” – Coco Chanel
> 
> elle is the ice queen but i'm the queen of typos and mistakes as usual so feel free to point out whatever you see!
> 
> (also y'all are amazing and i tear up a little whenever i read your comments thank you all for the continued support <3)

Aaron Kelley liked to think that he was a decent person.

He held the door for other people, regardless of their age and gender. He tipped waitresses and waiters well, even if his order came out messed up because he knew it wasn’t their fault. He donated to charity and volunteered at functions when hockey wasn’t taking up his time. His parents had always taught him to respect people and stick up for people that couldn’t stick up for themselves. _Do no harm but take no shit_ had been his mantra for as long as he cold remember.

That last bit was what drove him, especially when it came to people he cared about.

Aaron had known Elle for a little over three years. They’d been drafted by the Flyers the same year, him in the first round and her in the sixth, and when they became friends during those first few days of rookie training, he knew they’d be a lasting friendship.

Elle didn’t make the starting roster, but Aaron did. That did nothing to put a damper on their friendship. It definitely sucked to be in two different places, but they were close enough that they were able to hang out occasionally, and they texted fairly often, and they always saw each other during training camps at the beginning of every season.

The bottom line was that Aaron liked Elle a lot. She was cool, and she was a pretty decent goalie. He had been ridiculously happy for her when she was called up for her first NHL game, and though her being put in net hadn’t exactly been under the best circumstances, he’d been just as ecstatic for her when she claimed her first victory.

It was a real shame that the NHL was still so driven by men and, in turn, didn’t know how to be decent when a woman did something amazing.

He remembered sitting in his stall after Elle’s first win. He hadn’t been tapped for media that night, but he took his time getting his things together before going off to shower because he wanted to be there to support Elle.

He also distinctly remembered having to hold himself back from punching someone in the face when one of the reporters asked, “Are you wearing _makeup_?” with the kind of emphasis on the word that made it sound dirty and despicable.

Aaron knew that Elle was more than capable of holding her own, and she did. He remembered laughing when she had ripped the reporter a new one, just like when they were kids—younger kids, even, since they were definitely still kids.

Afterwards, Elle had rolled her eyes at him and gone off to shower. Aaron continued to cackle in his stall as she went, and once she was gone, he resumed tidying his stall so that his gear was in order.

He assumed that the reporter’s snide question would be the last he would hear about Elle wearing makeup. He should have known better, though.

Men could rarely let women have something they enjoyed without tearing them down for it.

 

* * *

 

The reporter that had asked the question wasn’t a normal beat reporter. He had been a national reporter tapped only because the first woman starting in the NHL was a national story, and his version of events was not kind.

 _First Female NHL Goalie Elle Queen Would Rather Play Dress-Up_ , was the title of the article published the very next morning.

Aaron seethed into his breakfast because he was _livid_.

“What a jackass,” he grumbled, squinting blearily at his phone. “Knew I should’a punched him.”

His girlfriend, Lydia, was a goddamn saint because she very carefully plucked his phone from his hand and set it just out of reach. It was not even eight in the morning and she already looked impeccable, her makeup and hair done so that she could head off to her internship for a few hours before going to class at Swarthmore.

“You shouldn’t care what they say,” she said calmly, placing her hand on his back and lightly scratching. “Elle tore him to shreds. We know it, half the country knows it—she’s on youtube and the morning news just destroying this guy.”

“Yet he still published that stupid article,” Aaron said.

Lydia shrugged. “No one will read that garbage because the truth is already everywhere else. Elle will be fine. Don’t go around threatening bodily harm.”

“I can’t make any promises,” Aaron sighed. “I hate when people are shitty like that. Elle is a good hockey player, but all he could focus on was that she was wearing makeup. Fucking figures.”

The smile he received from Lydia was the same kind of smile that continued to take his breath away every time he saw it. God, he really couldn’t believe that she had agreed to live with him.

“I know,” she murmured, leaning down to brush a light kiss to his lips. “I love that you stick up for people. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow. “There’s more than one?”

“Definitely,” she agreed with a wicked grin, “Having abs is a huge plus.”

“You only love me for my body?” he asked with a faux frown. “I’m hurt.”

Lydia snickered. “If you’re hurt, perhaps you should consult a trainer,” she replied cheekily, grabbing her travel mug of coffee where it sat on the kitchen table.

“Maybe I will,” he said flippantly.

Her smile grew just a little. “Please stop worrying, babe. Elle will be fine. She’s made of tougher stuff than some loser who can only talk bad about her in his article and not to her face.”

“He definitely tried to talk bad about her to her face,” Aaron pointed out.

Lydia ran a hand over his hair. “I know, but she’s got this. And so do you. Be a good friend like always, and she’ll be just fine.” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you when you get home from your road trip. Love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, his hand brushing against her cheek before she turned and left.

 

* * *

 

The Flyers decided to keep Elle for the time being.

Nik’s concussion was not looking great. It was mild, definitely, but it was also not his first. The trainers and medical staff wanted to take their time with the healing process, just to make sure that he would be okay in the long-term. That meant that Carter needed a backup goalie while he was out of commission.

“Are you feeling completely better?” Aaron asked as he passed by Carter’s stall at practice.

Carter Hart was the best starting goalie in the league in Aaron’s expert opinion. It didn’t matter that he was biased because Carter was his own goalie.

“One hundred percent,” Carter confirmed with a smile. “No flu can get the best of me.”

“Liar,” Travis snorted from a few stalls over.

“No one asked you,” Nolan sniped, and then the two dissolved into bickering.

Aaron rolled his eyes. Their bickering wasn’t new, and it likely wouldn’t change ever. He had accepted that as fact.

Nik’s stall sat empty save for the jersey hung up in it which read QUEEN instead of NIKITIN. Aaron found that he rather liked the way Elle’s name looked on a Flyers jersey.

“So is Queenie backup for now?” he asked as he made his way to his own stall.

“As far as I know,” Carter said. “The Phantoms have a pretty decent backup for her and their other goaltender, so they agreed to let us have her for a while.”

Aaron frowned. “Is she staying in a hotel nearby? Driving every day from Lehigh Valley to here is going to suck.”

“It does suck,” Elle confirmed as she breezed right by him. “But I’d drive two hours just to sit on that bench. It’s great.”

Travis and Nolan stopped arguing for just a moment to greet her before going back to verbally tearing each other to shreds. Elle sat in her stall with a confused stare and then looked to Aaron.

“Are they always like this?” she asked quietly.

Carter snorted. “Always,” he confirmed. “They must have been acting super professional in front of you for your first game. Their professionalism doesn’t last long.”

“It never does,” Ivan agreed.

Elle snorted and went about dressing for practice. “That’s good,” she said. “Maybe they’ll be too busy arguing when it’s my turn in net to take any decent shots.”

Aaron grinned. Elle seemed normal, if just a little happier, and he was glad that she wouldn’t be letting the reporter from last night get to her.

 

* * *

 

The article hadn’t been up for long before going viral, just as Elle’s interview had.

With being viral there came a certain level of criticism. Most of it was in Elle’s favor, with people saying that women could wear makeup if they wanted and that it was no one’s business but their own.

Others, however, were not so nice.

It was men, of course. It always was. They said things that were mean and sometimes downright vile. It was mostly drivel about how wearing makeup made a woman fake, or how women were more concerned about their looks than the game. Those were the nicer comments, though; others called her much nastier things or insinuated that makeup made Elle good at more than just taking a few pucks.

Even Don Cherry had something to say about it, because _of course_ he did.

**Coach’s Corner: Makeup Doesn’t Belong in Hockey**

_YOUTUBE_

_Posted 3 hours ago_

And then, because Theo was not one to take an attack on his best friend lightly (on or off the ice), he was quick to clap back.

 **Michael Theodore**  
_@themctheo_

_@CoachsCornerDC why are you so threatened by women?? who hurt you??_

And then Elle’s brother went and got involved, obviously just as peeved.

 **Calvin Queen**  
_@calqueen10_

_@CoachsCornerDC u literally played 1 nhl game who tf you talkin to??_

“It’s so fucking shitty,” Aaron grumbled into the phone.

He hadn’t seen the article or the comments by the time the team got onto the plane that afternoon, but he’d had a few hours to read it while they flew. He could only pray that Elle hadn’t seen any of it, but he had no way of knowing because she had disappeared the moment they got to the hotel.

On FaceTime, Lydia chewed nervously at her bottom lip. “It is,” she agreed. “Everyone I saw today was pretty much talking about it.”

“Good stuff?” Aaron asked rhetorically. He knew that not everyone could respect that Elle liked wearing makeup.

Lydia’s mouth formed a thin line, and Aaron knew what the reply would be. “Is she okay?” she asked instead.

Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since we got off the plane. You think she knows?”

Lydia snorted. “She definitely knows. These guys online have no problem tagging her in tweets and comments,” she said. “I’ve actually reported a couple of the things I saw because they were so gross.”

He cringed. “I think I’m gonna track her down and check on her.”

“Yeah, please do,” Lydia agreed. “Let me know how she is later, okay?”

“You got it. Love you.”

“Love you too,” she said, blowing him a kiss before he disconnected the call.

 

* * *

 

When he texted Elle asking if she wanted to hang out, she said no with some excuse about being tired after the flight and wanting to sleep. Aaron wished he could call her out on it, but if he were in her place, he knew that he’d probably want space, too.

She showed up at the Staples Center for practice looking like she always did. She wasn’t wearing makeup, but as far as Aaron knew, Elle never wore makeup to practice. It wasn’t out of the ordinary.

She didn’t even seem upset. She still carried the same excited energy around her that she had been for days, likely still high off her first win and being called up. She joked with the guys in practice, called them out when they went a little too far, and she was solid in net when it was her turn.

It was when she showed up for the game that Aaron noticed something was wrong.

The boys all showed up in their gameday suits, as was usual. Elle came into the locker room after almost everyone else had, but there was something different about her.

Carter frowned over at her when she sat in her stall. “You okay?” he asked.

Elle frowned right back. “Yeah, why?”

Aaron looked up. She wasn’t wearing her usual gameday makeup.

Carter shook his head. “Nothing,” he hummed, but he still looked troubled.

Honestly, Aaron felt a little troubled, too.

 

* * *

 

Carter started in net that night, and it was great to have him back. He performed in a way that one might not even know he’d been out with the flu just a few days prior.

The Flyers went straight from the arena to the plane to head to Anaheim, a game they would play in two days. It was a game that everyone was fairly certain Elle would be playing in.

 

* * *

 

Aaron waited until the next morning to call Theo.

“Hey, AK,” he answered. “’Sup?”

“Hey,” Aaron said. “How are you?”

He could practically hear the frown in Theo’s voice when he asked, “Dude, you good? You sound off.”

Aaron pursed his lips. “Have you talked to Elle lately?”

It was Theo’s turn to sound a little off when he responded hesitantly. “Yeah.”

“Is she upset about something?”

“So you noticed it too, huh?” Theo sighed. “Yeah, she’s upset.”

“Is it about that stupid reporter?”

“Oh, no,” Theo was quick to correct. “She couldn’t give a shit about the reporter. It’s real hockey fans talking shit about things they have no idea about and think women are only good for one thing.”

Aaron let out an angry sigh. “She shouldn’t let shit like that get to her.”

“I know, man, but it does,” Theo said. “Things like that get to her _bad_. She won’t tell anyone, though—she’ll act like nothing’s wrong like the pro she is, but it really does get to her.” He was silent for a moment. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.”

“Probably,” Aaron agreed, “but I think I was on my way to figuring it out myself.”

Theo hummed. “I know. You’re a smart dude.”

“I know,” Aaron chuckled. “So smart, in fact, that I think I know how to let her know the team has her back.”

“Whatever you need help with, you can count the Phantoms in, too.”

 

* * *

 

Elle wasn’t officially part of the group chat yet, so it was pretty easy to ask the guys and get them on board with the plan without her knowing.

**Gritty Gang**

_AK-47  
On a scale of one to never how willing are you guys to wear makeup??_

He got a response not even three minutes later.

_Patty-Cakes  
This is about Elle, isn’t it_

Dang. Aaron hadn’t counted on anyone figuring it out right away.

_AK-47  
Yeah, it is _

A few more minutes passed, but the replies started pouring in.

_Starter Hart  
Honestly I feel like I could rock the winged liner better than Queenie_

_Teeks_  
_I asked Karly how to do makeup and she just laughed so hard she cried and then sent me a bunch of makeup tutorial videos._  
_That’s true love, baby_

 _Patty-Cakes_  
_Gross keep your love and stuff out of the gc_  
_But also count me in_

_Provolone  
I have no idea how to do makeup lol_

_Old Hagg  
We could hire a pro makeup artist to do it for us. Isn’t that a thing??_

_Piano Man_  
_We’ll need a few, I think. We can’t make just on person do makeup for all of us_  
_*one_

_Teeks  
Listen I don’t care how we do it but I definitely want my beard filled in like eyebrows, that shit’s sick_

_Patty-Cakes  
What beard you man-child???_

Aaron grinned. He loved his team.

 

* * *

 

The ladies at Ulta nearly had a heart attack when over twenty men strolled in after their shortened naps on gameday.

“We’re not asking for, like, _great_ makeup,” Travis explained to the harried makeup artists. “Just simple stuff. We’re trying to prove a point.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Carter said, pushing his way to the front of the crowd to stand beside the captain. “I want the full glam, please.”

Somehow, they made it work. Aaron made sure that they all tipped the Ulta employees graciously.

 

* * *

 

Elle did a double take when she got onto the bus that afternoon.

“What the fuck?”

“Is that any way to react to how great we look?” Travis snorted. His eyelids gleamed with glittery orange when he blinked.

Elle looked stunned for a moment before a smile slowly slid onto her face. “What are you doing this for?”

“You didn’t wear makeup to the last game,” Carter said pointedly. “AK said you _always_ wear makeup to games.”

“I do,” Elle agreed quietly. “I didn’t think any of you would notice.”

“We noticed because your gameday makeup is, like, the best thing ever,” Nolan piped up. “No one says shit about Queenie, right boys?” A chorus of agreement rose up among the team seated on the bus.

Elle laughed. “Thanks, guys,” she said, taking a seat beside Aaron. “Good thing I didn’t wear makeup today. I would have smoked all you hos.”

Aaron snorted. “Please. You _wish_ you looked this good with highlight.”

 

* * *

 

No one else quite seemed to know how to react to a bunch of large, muscular hockey players rolling up to a game in full makeup and their gameday suits.

“You all look great,” their Coach said blandly. His red lipstick was a little distracting because of how terribly it clashed with his tie.

“Right back at ya, Coach,” Elle managed to say with a straight face.

 

* * *

 

“No makeup today?” one pregame reporter asked her before they were set to take the ice for warmups.

Elle shrugged. “The boys worked so hard to look half as good as me," she joked. "I wouldn’t want to take away from my their fun, y’know?”

 

* * *

 

Even the Ducks seemed kind of appalled.

“Is this allowed?” their centerman asked when Nolan went to face him for the puck drop.

The linesmen shrugged. “There’s nothing that says it isn’t,” he said.

They went from appalled to chirpy in no time, though. “Are you all wearing makeup like a bunch of girls because you play like them?” one of the Ducks called to Aaron as they prepared for a faceoff at the dot just to the right of Elle.

Aaron sneered, and Elle blatantly hooked her stick into the Ducks player’s skate when he came to close to her net.

“Whoops,” she said flatly as the whistle was blown for the penalty.

It was the best two minutes in the box Aaron had ever served.

 

* * *

 

“So,” someone asked cheerily in the post-game media scrum. “Care to explain the makeup?”

Aaron had been tapped for media because of the two goals he had scored in their 5-1 win over the Ducks.

Aaron shrugged. “Sure,” he said. “I’m sure most of you read that article about Elle from her debut. I can’t remember that guy’s name and honestly he doesn’t deserve any more recognition than what he’s already got, but what he said was really messed up.”

“Whatever he said worked, though,” the same reporter said. “Elle hasn’t worn makeup in two games now.”

“Well, yeah,” Aaron snorted. “She wants to be a dedicated player, and that guy and a lot of hockey fans made it seem like the only way she could be that kind of player is if she stopped wearing makeup.”

“So you decided to wear makeup,” someone else added.

“Yeah,” Aaron said. “We went to Ulta—the one just ten minutes here, they were awesome—and we got our makeup done because we can still be good hockey players and wear makeup. We showed that by winning. And if we can wear makeup and still be at the top of our game, then so can Elle.”

“Are you aware that the Lehigh Valley Phantoms wore makeup for their game tonight as well?”

Aaron grinned. “Yeah, I know. Michael Theodore and I discussed this yesterday, and we decided to get both teams on board. I think I heard somewhere that they won their game tonight?”

“They did,” someone from the back of the group around him confirmed.

“Good,” Aaron hummed with a nod. “They deserve it. They want Elle to succeed just as much as we do.”

“So can we expect Elle Queen back in full makeup for her next start?” another reporter asked.

“I bet you can count on it,” Aaron said firmly. “And anyone that has something to say about it can say it to the guys in this locker room, and we’ll let him know just where he can shove it.”

 

* * *

 

“I didn’t think I could love you anymore than I already do, and yet you continue to surprise me,” Lydia said to him on the phone as the entire team piled onto the bus.

She sounded tired, mostly because it was well into the AM on the east coast while it was only about 10:30 on the west coast, but she also sounded very happy.

Aaron grinned, but of course she couldn’t see it because they weren’t on FaceTime. “I love you too,” he said. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“I don’t have my internship in the morning, and I don’t have class until noon,” Lydia murmured, but a yawn at the end of her sentence betrayed her.

Aaron chuckled. “Get some sleep, love.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, and he could almost hear her rolling her eyes. “Good game tonight, babe.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.”

They hung up, and then Aaron turned to Elle. “How the heck do I get the rest of this makeup off my face?” he demanded. It was still streaked across his face and under his eyes, despite the shower he had taken.

“Same,” Nolan said from the seat behind them.

Elle reached into her backpack and pulled out a little package that looked almost like baby wipes, and she snorted when Aaron said as much.

“Some makeup wipes for my hopeless giant babies,” she cooed cheekily, and passed them around to everyone on the bus.

 

* * *

 

The Flyers wearing makeup made national news, just as Elle's debut had. They were being praised for their act by some people because standing up for their teammate was somehow a big deal. Aaron wondered how being a decent human being was setting the bar low, but if the Flyers wearing makeup would make people stop talking shit about Elle, then he knew they would do it again and again if that's what it took.

Aaron rolled his eyes at the hockey fans and even normal people who disapproved. There were bigger things in the world to worry about then some dudes wearing makeup, after all, and he said as much each time someone tried to pick a fight with him over the internet about it.

Lydia tweeted out a picture of him from the game, one that came from the Flyer’s official Instragram.

 **Lydia Riordan**  
_@lydiaariordan_

_Makeup doesn’t make you a good or bad hockey player, it just makes you a more fun hockey player. #flyers #hockeyisforeveryone #whyareyourbrowsbetterthanmine  
_

Even Elle had tweeted a picture of them all from the bus, scrubbing makeup off of their faces with the wipes she had handed out. In the picture, Travis’s face looked stupid as he attempted to get mascara from under his eyes, Nolan looked like a demon with red eyes from the flash, and Aaron looked like he’d been crying because of the streaks left by the shower.

They looked like a hot mess, but it was very on brand for the Flyers. Aaron didn’t hesitate to save the photo to his camera roll.

 **Elle Queen**  
_@icequeenelle_

_This is what living the dream looks like <3_

Aaron liked and retweeted the post because she was right.

Their goalie liked to wear makeup, and the rest of the world could get over it.

**Author's Note:**

> as usual, thanks for reading and i hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
